


Gift of the Dream King

by yeska_noka



Category: Kis-My-Ft2 (Band), Tackey & Tsubasa
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-15
Updated: 2011-04-15
Packaged: 2019-03-29 23:33:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,417
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13937796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yeska_noka/pseuds/yeska_noka
Summary: Very, VERY loosely based on Neil Gaiman's Sandman, because I haven't read it in years and years and can't remember most of the details, so I have no idea how actually similar this is or not. This was just one of those things I woke up with in my head and it had to get written.





	Gift of the Dream King

**Author's Note:**

> Very, VERY loosely based on Neil Gaiman's Sandman, because I haven't read it in years and years and can't remember most of the details, so I have no idea how actually similar this is or not. This was just one of those things I woke up with in my head and it had to get written.

“Nikaido!” Takizawa called. “Nikaido, I know you’re here!”

Nikaido didn’t move, watching silently from his perch on top of the gargoyle as Takizawa strode out onto the roof. There was no escape, Nikaido knew, but he’d managed to evade Takizawa for weeks, delaying the inevitable each time. Now it had caught up with him.

“Nikaido.” Takizawa came to a stop below Nikaido’s hiding spot. Nikaido still said nothing.

“You’re not going to jump, are you?” Takizawa asked. “It would be ever so messy to clean up.” And then, when Nikaido still said nothing, “Nikaido, talk to me, please.”

“I have nothing to say to you.” Nikaido glared.

“You can’t keep going to him,” Takizawa told him, and Nikaido already knew that, but hearing it hurt.

“I love him,” he appealed. He did love Senga, and Takizawa had soft spots for cases like this.

Takizawa sighed. “You don’t love him. You weren’t designed to love.”

“Well then you made a mistake,” Nikaido insisted. “Because I _do_.”

“It’s not healthy for him,” Takizawa said, switching tactics, and Nikaido bit his lip. “He spends much too much time in Dreaming. He’s not living his life.”

Nikaido knew that, and he also knew that if he could, Senga would stay with him in Dreaming forever. Nikaido wished that it were possible. And it _was_ possible, but Senga would have to give up his waking life, to give up everything he knew. There was always a chance that his body would fail him, or that those in waking around him wouldn’t take care of him, and then where would they be? Senga would die.

But there was another way.

“Let me go,” Nikaido whispered, terrified to have even thought of leaving. “Please.”

Takizawa didn’t dismiss him outright. “Do you know what you’re asking?” he said, after a long silence.

“I know,” Nikaido answered. But they all made choices, and Senga was his most important one. “I know.”

 

“Who are you?” Senga asked, staring at the serious-looking man who materialized from the swirl of black. The color settled around him, tendrils of dark mist consolidating into flowing robes which had no end, fading into non-existence.

“I am Takizawa Hideaki, King of Dreaming,” the man said, presenting himself with a sweeping bow.

Senga stared. “K-king of...”

“Dreaming,” Takizawa repeated. “I’ve come to speak with you about a grave matter.”

“Y-yeah?”

“You have no need to fear me,” Takizawa said, but despite his words and smallish stature, Senga trembled. He wasn’t sure exactly what “King of Dreaming” meant, but he could imagine enough.

“I need to discuss with you one of my Dreams,” Takizawa continued, and Senga knew he was right to be afraid.

“You—, you’re going to take him away,” Senga despaired.

“It’s a possibility,” Takizawa said. “That’s what I’m here to discuss.”

“I need him,” Senga said, and it was true. He couldn’t imagine his life without Nikaido in it.

“You don’t, though,” Takizawa said. “He’s a Dream. I sent him to you when you needed comfort, but it was only supposed to be one time. It was his job to make you feel better so that you would awaken with the strength to continue on with life. Not,” Takizawa frowns, “so that you would refuse to live it.”

“I’m not refusing to live my life,” Senga said, but he knew it was a lie even as the words left his mouth.

Takizawa stepped closer, his robes swirling into infinity behind him. “But you are. You spend more time here than all but the permanent residents. You come here even when you are awake, and unlike most, who limit themselves to the Garden of Wakeful Dreaming, you wander freely. It is not safe.”

“Not... safe?” Senga shrank away. He had a feeling that if Takizawa said something wasn’t safe, the possibilities would be awful.

“There are Dreams who would be glad to take you, to keep you,” Takizawa explained. “A loose, wandering soul? They would have you stay here, and you would never awaken again.”

“Can... can I do that?” Senga asked. He should be afraid, he knew that. But the idea that he might remain forever in Dreaming, forever with Nikaido, was tempting.

Takizawa sighed. “It is possible. People have chosen it. But,” he warned, “it is not a decision to be made lightly. You must forever give up the Waking World and everyone in it. You would never see your family, never continue your life.”

“But I would live here instead?” Senga questioned. “Isn’t it the same? Just a different path. It’s just as real, though.”

“It is and it isn’t,” Takizawa said, but refused to explain further. He looked openly at Senga. “Would you do that? Would you give up your life, your world, all for my little Dream?”

All for Nikaido. Yes. Senga would do it for him. He met Takizawa’s eye. “Yes,” he said, his voice loud and clear. “I choose your Dream.”

Takizawa looked sad. “Can you tell me why?”

Senga nodded. “Because I love him.”

There was another long silence, and then, “Would you give up Dreaming?” Takizawa asked him.

“What?”

“Nikaido has said he would give up the Dreaming for you. So that he may live your life with you,” Takizawa explained.

Senga’s heart felt tight in his chest, his head light. “That would be the perfect dream,” he whispered, hardly daring to say it out loud.

“Nikaido _is_ a Perfect Dream,” Takizawa said. “One of very few. You will have to pay a high price for him.”

“Anything,” Senga said immediately.

“You must give up the Dreaming as well,” Takizawa said, and his face was not unkind. “You will never be able to come here again.”

On the surface, it seemed like an easy thing to accept, easier than the pain he would instill on people if he chose not to awaken, but Senga knew better. Dreams were possibilities, escapes, realities, and knowing that is what put him in this predicament in the first place. A life without Dreams would be difficult indeed. But if he could keep just that one Dream with him...

“Okay,” Senga said. “I accept your price.”

Takizawa watched him for a long moment and then finally turned away, his robes swirling up to engulf him in a black mist. “Very well,” came his voice, and the color dissipated into nothingness. “It is done.”

 

“You released him into the Waking?” Tsubasa frowned with disapproval and Takizawa cringed. Nikaido had always been one of his advisor’s favorite Dreams.

“You would have had me confine the boy to Dreaming instead?” Takizawa shook his head. “I’m not that cruel.”

“It takes you a very long time to design Perfect Dreams,” Tsubasa reminded him. “This is the fourth one that you’ve lost.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Takizawa insisted. “Besides, they’ll find each other out there. They’re brothers of my creation.” Perfect Dreams, but while Takizawa could make them that way, there was no way to keep them. Use rounded their edges, took away their perfection, and what would be the purpose of making a Perfect Dream that couldn’t be used?

Tsubasa sighed. “And how are the new Dreams doing?”

Takizawa’s new batch, eight complimentary Dreams designed to work together. “Well, at least they’re not nightmares?” He smiled when Tsubasa just shut his eyes, seemingly pained. “You’ll like working with them, I promise.”

“We’ll see,” Tsubasa said.

 

Senga shifted and knew instantly that he was awake. _No_ , he thought. _No, no!_ He hadn’t received any further instructions, no information from the Dream King. And he couldn’t ever go back?!

A small noise, a brush of movement next to him snapped his attention back to Waking. Senga flipped over in panic, but stopped as soon as he saw the figure next to him. Dark hair spread across Senga’s pillow, skin pale as if he’d never seen the sun, Nikaido seemed smaller than in Dreaming, but solid in a way he’d never been when Senga reached out to touch him. His eyes fluttered open and Senga’s heart fluttered with them, the Dreaming reflected in their depths; neither of them could ever return.

“Where am I?” Nikaido asked, and his voice, too, had a new permanence to it, low and rough and human.

Tears gathered at the corners of Senga’s eyes. “You’re Awake.”

 

 _It’s just a dream_ , they say. _It can’t hurt you. It’s not real_. But Senga knows better than that. He says nothing, just holds tight to his Dream’s hand and smiles, promising never to let go.


End file.
